Boy S/UF you're making me dislike Archer even more I'm having to remind myself that he improves greatly.

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Sorry about that. I type my responses to these episodes as I watch them or right after. I may not get around to posting at that time, much of the time yes, but this was typed when I just couldn't believe how she was being treated.

I like "Stigma", though it's probably best viewed as non-canon, especially since T'Pol willingly consented to the mind-meld in "Fusion" before she was attacked, so it's not as though she was quite blameless there.

Still, I'll take a good bad canon ep over a dull canon-neutral one any day... I think.

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Here's where I have an issue with this part of your statement. She did agree to the meld, but she agreed as someone who'd never tried it before and was a bit apprehensive about it to begin with, and her soon-to-be-attacker knew that. She was placing her trust in him, and he knew that too. Things were fine up until he wanted to push farther than she was willing to go and he went there anyway, and that was the violation. She never consented to that.

What he did was the equivalent of sleeping with a virgin who's not all that sure about sex in the first place (you basically had to talk them into "trying" it), and then a few minutes in deciding to have rough, hard-core porn-star sex with them after they've already said they're not comfortable with that and they shout out "Stop!" and that you are hurting them. And yes, it's going to hurt them. He should have known better and to stop as soon as she said she was uncomfortable. And I think he did know better. He just didn't care. Poor T'Pol had to find that out the hard way. He damaged her mind, but at least it wasn't permanent. Had she not been strong enough to fight him off and he had his way, she would have been permanently damaged. She didn't consent to that.

He really does. I think he's the only moody captain out of the bunch. Sisko could get emotional at times, but he wasn't moody. Moodiness implies an emotional instability that I would think could bar someone from the captain's chair, but it was the first mission, so...

Things were fine up until he wanted to push farther than she was willing to go and he went there anyway, and that was the violation. She never consented to that.

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Yes, but "Stigma" makes pretty clear that all Vulcans know about the P'nar syndrome, so either Polly didn't ask if he had it or believed a denial without testing it, and was therefore rash either way.

In contemporary terms, she banged him without even employing a rubber, far less an STD test. The mind-violation was a serious offense, but it didn't occur until after she willingly initiated that encounter, even brushing aside his suggestion she might be going too fast.

The revelation of the syndrome retroactively establishes that she was way out of character to do that, which is another reason to consider "Stigma" a strong but non-canon ep.

Things were fine up until he wanted to push farther than she was willing to go and he went there anyway, and that was the violation. She never consented to that.

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Yes, but "Stigma" makes pretty clear that all Vulcans know about the P'nar syndrome, so either Polly didn't ask if he had it or believed a denial without testing it, and was therefore rash either way.

In contemporary terms, she banged him without even employing a rubber, far less an STD test. The mind-violation was a serious offense, but it didn't occur until after she willingly initiated that encounter, even brushing aside his suggestion she might be going too fast.

The revelation of the syndrome retroactively establishes that she was way out of character to do that, which is another reason to consider "Stigma" a strong but non-canon ep.

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Is P'Nar Syndrome communicable? I thought it was caused by the incompetence of an inexperienced Melder

Enterprise Season 1 I found was better in the books than on TV. I read the novelizations of "Broken Bow" and "Shockwave" years before I saw them on the DVD sets, and I couldn't believe the amount of garbage that was on the screen. I kept wondering how anyone could've approved the episodes.

Plus the books that take place in between the two episodes are a lot more interesting than the actual episodes. I'll take "By The Book" over "Shuttlepod One" any day!!! I would actually say that "Shuttlepod One" was the 'jumping the shark' episode for Enterprise...a whole episode about two guys being stranded in a shuttle and talking about nothing more than who has the better rear end...some one definitely took leave of their senses.

Things were fine up until he wanted to push farther than she was willing to go and he went there anyway, and that was the violation. She never consented to that.

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Yes, but "Stigma" makes pretty clear that all Vulcans know about the P'nar syndrome, so either Polly didn't ask if he had it or believed a denial without testing it, and was therefore rash either way.

In contemporary terms, she banged him without even employing a rubber, far less an STD test. The mind-violation was a serious offense, but it didn't occur until after she willingly initiated that encounter, even brushing aside his suggestion she might be going too fast.

The revelation of the syndrome retroactively establishes that she was way out of character to do that, which is another reason to consider "Stigma" a strong but non-canon ep.

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I guess it's nice that you gave her a nickname, but I suspect dear "Polly" didn't want that cracker her attacker pushed off on her. She didn't bang him because that requires a more active participation than the tentative and apprehensive one that I saw.

Any by your logic, anything that happens after an initial agreement to something totally different makes what wasn't agreed to okay? There's something wrong with that.

Things were fine up until he wanted to push farther than she was willing to go and he went there anyway, and that was the violation. She never consented to that.

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Yes, but "Stigma" makes pretty clear that all Vulcans know about the P'nar syndrome, so either Polly didn't ask if he had it or believed a denial without testing it, and was therefore rash either way.

In contemporary terms, she banged him without even employing a rubber, far less an STD test. The mind-violation was a serious offense, but it didn't occur until after she willingly initiated that encounter, even brushing aside his suggestion she might be going too fast.

The revelation of the syndrome retroactively establishes that she was way out of character to do that, which is another reason to consider "Stigma" a strong but non-canon ep.

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Is P'Nar Syndrome communicable? I thought it was caused by the incompetence of an inexperienced Melder

Isn't that what T'Pau says in S4 when she cures T'Pol

, rather than melding with someone who had it?

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Thank you. That makes a lot of sense. After all, Spock mind-melded many times and never infected anyone. But, then he was able to control himself and wouldn't hurt anyone for his own selfish pleasure.
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Aaand onward.

Cease Fire

It's the Andorians again, and they are still fighting the Vulcans on some planet that resides on the border between their areas of space. Right off, I think they should just split the terrirory of the planet down the middle, but Archer is called in to help. Trip did a very nice job as acting captain. It's too bad that there were Andorians that would rather fight and die than talk it out. Overall, this was one of the better episodes this season.

Grade: B
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Future Tense

I'm not sure exactly what this was about. We never know for sure what was going on with that ship or the supposed beacon. We never get to see the Tholians. We don't know how any of this will affect future episodes. So, all I can say is that it was interesting.

Cease Fire... more Evil Vulcans and Andorians. And playing devil's advocate splitting the planet won't work... it rotates and the Andorian side may face Vulcan space half of the time! We can't have that. Shran's always fun and the Enterprise Vulcans just make me understand why the Romulans left. It's a good episode though overall though. Really Archer confuses me at times. It's firmly established that Earth and Vulcan are closely affiliated, even if not formally allied. I get that Archer plainly -likes- Shran more than Soval, but he really goes out of his way to alienate the Vulcans in favor of the Andorians time and again. I'm surprised Forest or someone else hasn't fired him over it once the political pressure starts getting applied.

Future Tense... another cliche time travel episode. Though at least they broke the cliche super powerful Vulcan ship always being nearby to save the day trend. And the Tholians are one of the true -alien- species in every respect of the world instead of just humans with funny foreheads/ears/etc. You'll get to see one later on eventually... though this episode has nothing to do with it. The Vulcan/human child joke was funny and probably the best moment of this episode.

Cease Fire... more Evil Vulcans and Andorians. And playing devil's advocate splitting the planet won't work... it rotates and the Andorian side may face Vulcan space half of the time! We can't have that.

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You've got me there. Planets do spin.

Shran's always fun and the Enterprise Vulcans just make me understand why the Romulans left. It's a good episode though overall though. Really Archer confuses me at times. It's firmly established that Earth and Vulcan are closely affiliated, even if not formally allied. I get that Archer plainly -likes- Shran more than Soval, but he really goes out of his way to alienate the Vulcans in favor of the Andorians time and again. I'm surprised Forest or someone else hasn't fired him over it once the political pressure starts getting applied.

Future Tense... another cliche time travel episode. Though at least they broke the cliche super powerful Vulcan ship always being nearby to save the day trend. And the Tholians are one of the true -alien- species in every respect of the world instead of just humans with funny foreheads/ears/etc. You'll get to see one later on eventually... though this episode has nothing to do with it. The Vulcan/human child joke was funny and probably the best moment of this episode.

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I think he kind of favors the Andorians a bit because he's not that fond of Vulcans (T'Pol being the exception) himself. It's nice to know that Tholians will make an appearance.

Oh, well I can't recall ever seeing them in the episodes I sometimes watched, so I guess I never saw that/those episode(s).

Soval. He did make me laugh when he says the Andorians must have been pleased with Archer's negotiating skills and he looks at his aide, signaling an addition to the point. I think he's the most naturally expressive Vulcan I've seen.

I liked Future Tense as one of those 'Trek eps that has fun stuff in it but nothing really interesting happens'. So: the Tardis joke, the vulcan/human reference, the temporal loop, and unseen Tholians (like the unseen Romulans - both of whom eventually show up).

Tucker: Look, Polly...I owe you an apology.T'Pol: For trying to kill me back on that planet?Tucker: Nope.T'Pol: For putting the dog at my duty station and calling him T'Porthos?Tucker: Nope.T'Pol: For calling me Polly a minute ago?

Any by your logic, anything that happens after an initial agreement to something totally different makes what wasn't agreed to okay?

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Huh? I never defended the rapist dude one bit. I just said that his crime doesn't change the fact that, by what we learn in "Stigma", Polly was irresponsible with regards to her own health by willingly engaging, before the encounter turned ugly, in a potentially dangerous act without getting him screened.

Again, by what we learn in "Stigma", she would have contracted the disease even if the meld had ended in mutually enjoyablefashion.